When I started the ILLUMINATION project in late 2013, I had no idea how it would develop into a multi-disciplined art project combining portrait photography of 150 authors and the creation of a 12-piece crystal art collection. I think in some ways the slow osmosis of the project allowed me to digest each component, and thankfully not imagine the amount of work that lay ahead of me.
Over the past 3 years I have been fortunate to get to know the incomparable Jo Lee Mascioli-Mansell, the highly successful Hollywood television writer and award winning Director, (based between Toronto and San Francisco for many years) who in 2000, founded JO LEE Magazine and the charitable organization, The Adeste Academy.
Jo Lee is a game changer who began publishing digitized editions before anyone else had thought about it. 100% of JO LEE Magazine’s advertizing revenue is given to higher education to African students: who can only dream.
So when Jo Lee suggested she would like to support my endeavours to illuminate some of the 150 Canadian authors I photographed through JO LEE Magazine, I was delighted by her interest and knew it would provide another window of exposure for the writers and the ILLUMINATION project..
“It was a joy working with Mark on ILLUMINATION – Portraits of Canadian Authors and having the opportunity to celebrate an important aspect of Canadian culture in JO LEE Magazine’s 15th Anniversary Issue. joleemagazine.com
We celebrate Canadian authors because they help define who we are, as individuals, as a community, as a society, and as a nation. They help explain our past, they help define our present, and they give us a sense of what could (and may) be our future.
As ILLUMINATION has portrayed 150 Canadian authors, I’ve chosen 16 whom to me, represent much of the diversity that is the richness of Canada. Each is an immensely talented storyteller of history, of belief, of experiences, both real and imagined; each an interpreter of what has happened and what could happen. Their stories are both fact and fiction. They are all different, but their shared contributions matter as the stories that bind us together as a nation” commented Jo Lee Mascioli-Mansell, Founder Editor In-Chief, JO LEE Magazine.
To view Jo Lee’s celebration of Canadian authors please visit: www.joleemagazine.com